Why South African resurrection stunt should ring a bell among Kenyans

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he church is viewed by believers as a house of God and a holy setting where God works his miracles and where they get consolation from stressful day to day hustles. Many hope to see an end to their life struggles – be it about finances, health or marriage issues.

However, preachers have in recent years been taking advantage of this, pulling stunts aimed to attract believers as they make it appear as God’s miracle. It is nothing short of subliminal brainwashing that has turned religious places into a crisis instead of places of hope.

Recently, there has been an outburst on social media after a video of a South African Man of God Alph Lukau pretended to resurrect a man. While the incident is obviously a scam, the video shows thousands of Christians in the church deeply in prayers as they believed the man was really dead and was resurrected by God.

With many ridiculing the stunt, his church, Alleluia International Ministries, confirmed the “dead” man was actually “already alive” when his “body” got to the premises.

Kenyans could not keep silent of this act as they took to social media to say how naive the south African believers were to believe such a stunt. Others even critically analysed the video to find clues that the person was indeed not dead including a mobile phone that was sported in his pocket, a move that irked a Kenyan, Malikia Kimani, one of his ardent followers.

What was lost to us is that we criticised the believers of the church forgetting that barely a year ago, another religious leader, just like Lukau, allegedly resurrected a person in Kenya.

If you cannot remember the incident then you definitely remember congregations of the Repentance and Holiness Ministry, belonging to the famous Prophet David Owuor, going around the country singing ‘Mama Rosa’.

The story behind being that their ‘prophet of God’ had resurrected a lady called Rose from the dead so the congregation was spreading the good news. Mama Rosa died on January 2019 and was secretly laid to rest while no member of the Repentance and Holiness ministry spoke about it.

While most of his congregation languish in poverty, Owuor, like his South African match, lives an unapologetic life of opulence at the expense of his church and drives in convoy of limousines complete with police outriders. Other rogue pastors lead similar lives.

Owuor’s followers continuously believe that Owuor is indeed a prophet as the population of his church gets bigger. The stunts performed by this man have greatly contributed to the growth of his church as many join hoping for miracles in their lives.

If you know someone who converted to be a member of the church then you will agree with me that members of the church do not understand logic, completely. The things the locals go through to please the ‘prophet’ makes you pity them. You can offer to help but to them, the only way you can help is joining the church.

We have seen people engage in tedious activities like mopping tarmac in preparation for the coming of the ‘prophet’. Members of the church have swept entire towns and washed roads because the ‘prophet’ does not like dirty surroundings.

Why? Why spend hours mopping an entire town for a guy who will arrive in his Range Rover and probably not set foot on the bare ground.

I don’t even think we have to talk about the dress code. We have seen our sisters donning long coats and long dresses in the middle of the day when the sun is scorching hot. You try telling them to lose the coat but they can’t because the prophet instructed them not to.

How naive can you be to believe in this stunts? It has been argued that you cannot understand God with logic and I do not want to question this but we definitely have to question some ‘miracles’ we see in churches.

In 2014, then KTN journalist Mohamed Ali exposed how Pastor Kanyari was stage managing his miracles in a documentary that opened Kenyans’ eyes to men ad women who pose as preachers just to make money.

The money these rogue pastors make is so huge that it is time the government did something to curb their activities. Registering a church with the government is not a hard task as you just need is to prove you have a following.

In South Africa, religious leaders are now calling for Parliament to enact regulations to govern religious institutions. The man in question has also been arrested by police while Lukau is facing lawsuits over the stunt, including from funeral directors.

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The incident with the South African Pastor only highlights where the World is at now. Money has become hard to come by and the lazy, who are afraid to work for a living, result to either theft with violence or creating a fake church to collect tithes, both of which are just theft. It is only in Africa that you witness this as the preachers know they are dealing with a naive lot.